For Lafayette QBs, one magical tale ends, but saga continues

Lafayette Coach Frank Tavani with quarterbacks Blake Searfoss and Drew Reed in the Yankees clubhouse in Yankees Stadium prior to the Lehigh-Lafayette 150th football meeting.

Lafayette Coach Frank Tavani with quarterbacks Blake Searfoss and Drew Reed in the Yankees clubhouse in Yankees Stadium prior to the Lehigh-Lafayette 150th football meeting. (LAFAYETTE COLLEGE ATHLETICS, CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Paul ReinhardSpecial to The Morning Call

Lafayette College quarterbacks and spring ball: Now what?

The starting quarterback is injured in the second quarter of a game against a longtime nemesis. The backup steps in trailing 10-0, has the best game of his career and leads his team to a 19-16 victory.

Nothing is really new about that scenario. It happens all the time in college football.

If that passing of the field leadership of Lafayette's football team from Drew Reed to Blake Searfoss was the best story line of the 2014 season, it still would have been worth repeating.

Instead, it was just one chapter of an astonishing and magical tale that climaxed when third-stringer Zach Zweizig, a former starter who lost his job through injury and who nearly quit the team for reasons that go beyond football, was pressed into service in the college's historic 150th game against Lehigh and delivered a rousing 27-7 Lafayette victory.

Zweizig is undoubtedly still basking in the afterglow of that Nov. 22 afternoon before almost 50,000 at Yankee Stadium.

The events surrounding Lafayette's total domination will be relived for years among Lafayette alumni and for generations of future Zweizigs.

But Zweizig's career is now finished.

For Reed and Searfoss, who came to College Hill together as members of Lafayette's first merit-scholarship recruiting class, life – and football – go on.

Right now, though, it's in the slow lane, not the passing lane – pun intended.

Ten days after Reed suffered a Lis franc fracture in his right foot when he was hit on a scramble against Colgate, Searfoss, on the next-to-last practice period of the day and executing a play-action pass on a goal-line drill, "sort of got twisted on my left foot, tried to roll out quick and push off it real hard and felt a snap in my [left] foot."

Before he ever really had a chance to think , he was getting the foot X-rayed. The picture burst a bubble that had been building since he rallied the Leopards against Colgate and began preparations to be the starter in college football's most-played rivalry. The diagnosis: a broken fifth metatarsal on his left foot.

Two days later, Reed and Searfoss were alongside one another in the surgery center at Coordinated Health, where Dr. Scott Sauer, a foot and ankle specialist, operated first on Reed's foot, and about a half hour later on Searfoss' foot.

Reed, an economics major from Lakeland, Tenn., led Lafayette to the Patriot League championship in 2013 after taking over for Andrew Dzurik midway through the season. He missed some time early in the 2014 season because of a shoulder problem but was hoping to come back strong against Colgate.

"I tried not to focus on my unfortunate situation," he said about having to turn over the reins to Searfoss after being hurt when "I was running down the sideline, rolled my ankle, then got landed on [by a Colgate player]. "It smooshed my foot together and popped the thing."

After Searfoss was hurt, "I tried to keep a positive mindset, be positive for Zach, be in his ear and help him out, answer any questions. I tried to be a leader for the team."

Searfoss, also an economics major, is from Flemington, N.J., and he said that after going 29-for-46 for 261 yards and two touchdowns against Colgate he had an abundance of confidence during a bye week during which "everyone was pretty fired up."

After his injury, Searfoss had to call his parents, calling it not "the best phone call of my life."

"At first, I was sort of feeling sorry for myself a little bit, but when something like that happens you can only hang your head for so long and dwell on it; you have to accept it, take an everything-happens-for-a-reason attitude," Searfoss said.

He focused on what a great opportunity it was for Zweizig, who endured the deaths of a father and a grandfather as well as a season-ending concussion and the post-concussion syndrome that almost caused him to pass up his last season at Lafayette.

"He's been a tough kid; he stuck with the team," Searfoss said of Zweizig. Zweizig had befriended him when he first got to Lafayette, and, when he wound up behind Reed and Searfoss on the depth chart, "he was nothing but nice and helpful to me. He never had a bad attitude, so it was only fair for us to repay him the same way."

The big question is what happens next for the two injured signal-callers. Lafayette is scheduled to begin its spring camp March 24, ending on April 18.

Reed said the pin in his foot will come out in three months. He faces a few weeks of recovery and rehab afterward. He's not optimistic about practicing in the spring.

Searfoss was slightly more optimistic, but also cautious.

"I think I should be good for spring ball," he said. But he also said "the bone that's broken gets the least blood flow in the body, so it's a tough break and it takes a little while to heal. They stuck a screw in there to seal it together. I think it's a two-or-three-month thing until it's healed."

At this point,freshman Josh Davis is the only other actual quarterback on the roster – Thomas Martin is listed as a kicker-quarterback. He kicked the winning field goal against Colgate.

Lafayette brought in two scholarship quarterbacks in 2013, but both Kyle Ohradzansky and Louie Pappas transferred when Zweizig was named the starter for 2013.

"He was going to be my quarterback for two years, but when he got hurt, we had to adapt," Coach Frank Tavani said.

It's the second year in a row in which the Leopards started three different quarterbacks. Zweizig started the first three games of 2013, with Dzurik taking over when Zweizig suffered a concussion at Penn. Dzurik was benched in favor of Reed at halftime of the Harvard game.

"It's almost like it was destiny," Tavani said of the Zweizig story, "but it takes special people and young men to handle the situation the way these kids do and that's what's so great about working at a place like Lafayette and in the Patriot League. It's truly a team sport, and what happened with Zach Zweizig should epitomize and be an example for everyone who's ever thought about not persevering."